WRT and Winward triumph at Magny-Cours

No matter if at night or on full daylight, the Circuit de Nevers in Magny-Cours isn’t exactly known for being easy to overtake, but the winners of the FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe races held this weekend, the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 and the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, found their ways to the top via some bravery on track or through pit window cleverness, even if there some post race drama on Saturday.

In the dusk of the first race, the No. 14 Emil Feey Ferrari kept the lead while Ben Green had his mirrors full of BMW M4 GT3s, with the No. 991 Century car and the No. 32 WRT one just waiting for a gap, which hardly opens there unless a massive mistake happens.

Eventually, Dries Vanthoor got tired of waiting and passed Dan Harper for second place, with ambitions of taking the lead immediately, and in nearly 10 minutes, the No. 32 went all out, dislodging the No. 14 out of the ideal line until it was forced to back off due to track limit infringement, and the No. 991 used the kerb to almost mount in the bonnet of the No. 14, but it got second place.

With the Bronze Cup cars falling down the order, the landscape changed in favor of the No. 96 Rutronik Porsche, with the No. 32 back to the chasing position with 25 minutes to go.

In the final minutes, Charles Weerts’ pace wasn't on a level to close down on the No. 96 Rutronik Porsche, so Patric Niederhauser just had to bring it home to the win, but after the race, the winner on track got 5 seconds added to their total time due to unsafe release in the pit window as the No. 96 got out right into the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari, and this penalty gave the Race 1 win to the No. 32 WRT BMW and the second place to the No. 48 Winward Mercedes.

GTWC Europe - Magny-Cours Race 1 results

The No. 88 Attempto Audi conquered the Gold Cup and the No. 90 Madpanda Mercedes was the Silver Cup winner, with the Bronze Cup passing from hand to hand in the second part of the race to award the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini due to an unsafe release penalty for the No. 97 Rutronik Porsche and added time due to avoidable collision from the No. 991 Century BMW.

The Race 2 start was delayed a bit as the No. 7 Comtoyou Aston Martin stopped on track during the warm-up lap, but when the field was allowed to race, the No. 9 Boutsen VDS took the lead, some cars visited the gravel and No. 26 Sainteloc Audi went straight to the barrier, which prompted the Safety Car entry.

The cleaning process took 13 minutes but the top spot stood with Jules Gounon, who left Tom Gamble behind as the No. 159 Garage 59 McLaren was almost falling prey of the No. 48 Winward Mercedes.

The pit window didn't help the No. 159, which fell out of contention for the win, so the No. 9 had only the No. 48 and the No. 32 WRT BMW to defend from. Eventually the chasers found the way past, but Maximilian Götz was dead set to at least hold Dries Vanthoor, but with a bit of force, the Belgian got the runner-up position.

Even though the No. 32 WRT BMW had the No. 48 Winward Mercedes within a second, Vanthoor lost the pace to be able to attack Lucas Auer, who just had to keep the consistent pace until the checkered flag was waved.

GTWC Europe - Magny-Cours Race 2 results

The No. 88 Attempto Audi completed the Gold Cup sweep with authority, and the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari also won by a considerable margin in the Silver Cup, while the No. 97 Rutronik Porsche finally got the Bronze Cup win the team saw the class victory being taken due to penalties on Saturday night.

Weerts and Vanthoor (No. 32) lead the Sprint Cup standings with 101.5 points while Auer and Engel (No. 48) trail them with 99.5 points, and with Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen (No. 14) nearly 40 points down them, it will be effectively a two horse race for the title at the Barcelona finale on 12 and 13 October. The GTWC Europe calendar returns earlier with the Endurance Cup round at a renovated Monza on 22 September.

PHOTOS: SRO/JEP